Street-car buffer



(No Mbdel.)

G. A. PARMENTER. STREET GAR BUFFER.

No. 545,908. Patented Sept. 10,1895.

NITED STATES ATENT much GEORGE A. PARMENTER, OF CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS.

STREET-CAR BUFFER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 545,908, dated September 10, 1895.

Application filed October 26, 1894. Serial No. 527,029; (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I GEORGE A. PA RMENIER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Cambridge, in the county of M'iddlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Street-Gar Bufier, of which the following is a specification.

My invention consists of a buffer for the dashboard or front end of a street-car, which is elastic and flexible at all points of its surface. Persons standing or walking on the track are liable to receive a sharp blow from a collision with the end of the car. The blow itself is often very severe, and my invention provides means to relieve it. These means I consist, essentially, of a netting on canvas stretched over springs of special construction and arranged to cover the entire dashboard of the car.

Figure 1 is a front elevation of the end of a car with my buffer attached. Fig. 2 is a plan view of the upper edge of the buffer and its attachment to the car.

0 is a network of wire, having meshes large enough to admit the fingers of the hand.

d d are elliptical springs having their inner ends secured to the body of the car A, and c c are similar springs secured to the upright rods c a of the dashboard by screws 19 b or to the dashboard itself, leaving the outer ends free to yield to any blow or pressure. The corners of the network are secured to the springs c c d d in any suitable way, The network is drawn tight over the springs, so that the whole arrangement results in a cushion, which is yelding at all points throughout its surface,

I prefer to use a network such as 0 but any closely woven material, such as canvas, would be equivalent for the netting 0. When a network is used having meshes large enough to admit the fingers of the hand, it may enablethe person struck by the car to catch hold of the wires and prevent a fall.

Heretofore buffers have been used which were elastic to some extent, but at certain points were rigid or inflexible. It will be seen that the network is yielding and elastic in every part and is flexible upon allits edges, thereby avoiding any sharp blow when colliding with any object.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The combination of the flexible network 0., having flexible edges entirely around it, the quarter-elliptic springs (1, cl, having their inner ends secured to the body of the car and their outer ends to the lower corners of the net Work 0., the quarter-elliptic springs c, 0, having their inner ends secured to the dashboard of the car and their outer ends to the upper corners of said not work 0., all so arranged that the net work 0. is tightly stretched between the ends of said springs, without other support than that at the points of attachment thereto, substantially as described.

Dated October 24, 1894:.

GEO. A. PARMENTER,

Witnesses:

CHAS. F. PERKINS, HERBERT W. TROWBRIDGE. 

